The food of a tick is human or animal blood, which it obtains by burying its snout in the flesh of its host and sucking until its highly elastic body is engorged with the red fluid. Due to the viruses and bacteria on or in ticks' bodies which can be transmitted to the host as they feed, these organisms cause Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, tularemia, relapsing fever, tick paralysis, and ricksettial diseases; and Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, equine and St. Louis encephalitis, Q fever, spirochetosis, and toxoplasmosis in animals. At 400.times.magnification, the snout of a tick resembles the nose of a sawfish: it has a long, straight, blade-like shape with a row of ten to twelve barb-like teeth on each side. Through this hollow proboscis passes the blood which the tick sucks from its host. Most importantly, when the tick retracts this apparatus after becoming engorged, it autonomically regurgitates a small portion of its blood meal, leaving it behind in the flesh of the host. In the case of Lyme disease, medical research has recently found that the transmitter of the disease is a spirochete that lives in the tick' s hind gut; and it is only during the tick's autonomic reflex process of regurgitation upon removing its proboscis that the possibly present spirochete is injected into the host. In fact, it is now known that most sufferers of Lyme disease contracted the illness not because they were bitten by a tick, but because the tick was improperly removed. This new medical knowledge also indicates that the most common methods of removing ticks--such as with the fingers, with tweezers, by applying heat, dousing the parasite with a chemical, or rotating the parasite about its longitudinal axis in efforts to dislodge its imbedded proboscis--are undesirable, and in some cases can actually promote the spread of this and other tick-borne diseases.
For example, grabbing the tick with one's fingers is undesirable, as this squeezes its posterior which is another way of injecting the spirochete into the host. Also, this method of removal can pull out some of the host's hair to its considerable discomfort and pain. Furthermore, touching the parasite is considered by many as repulsive, and this method of removal can also spread diseases borne on the tick's surface. Finally, when removing a tick by hand, a person usually employs his or her free hand to hold a tissue to receive the removed tick, and in so doing often loses the location of the wound in the possibly thick hair of the host, then subsequently has trouble relocating the wound for purposes of examination and applying medication.
Using tweezers to remove a tick is undesirable, as the hand holding them usually obstructs one's view of the invading organism during use, and considerable dexterity is required to place their two tiny gripping surfaces around the feeding parasite in the host's possibly thick fur; and even then the closing of the tweezer's jaws, especially if their opposing faces are flat or nearly so, will pinch the tick's posterior and inject the host with a portion of its blood meal while at the same time pulling hair from the host. Also, using tweezers can lead to dropping the tick from the jaws as the implement's legs spring open as it is laid aside, and, if the second hand is required for such disposal, subsequent difficulty in relocating the host's wound for purposes of examination and applying medication.
Applying heat is undesirable, as when the tick backs away from the host in efforts to escape the burning or the fumes, the organism once again activates its autonomic reflex process of regurgitation which can inject the spirochete into the host. Also, this activity usually requires both hands of the remover, can burn the host and even the remover, and often renders the tick incapable of subsequent analysis by public health officials.
Applying Vaseline, kerosene, chloroform, or other chemical also activates the autonomic reflex process of regurgitation of the parasite as it tries to back away from the host in efforts to get air, not to mention likely irritation to the host and subsequent need to thoroughly clean the wound.
Finally, rotating an imbedded parasite about its longitudinal axis in efforts to dislodge it is undesirable, as this will surely tear the tick's posterior from its lengthy barbed snout that is buried in the host, resulting in certain damage to tick and host.
All the above methods do not address the urgent problem of simply, safely, and comfortably removing a tick from its host. Furthermore, none of the above methods allow the remover's other hand to remain free at all times to calm the host and maintain location of the tiny wound. Finally, each of the above methods tend to hide or obscure the invading organism from view during some part of its removal.